A Toast
by HyperMint
Summary: How BJ got the fishing fly to put in the time capsule. 4/5th season. Spoilers for 'The Sniper' and 'Cowboy'.


Disclaimer: I do not own MASH and, even if I did, I don't know if I would change a thing.

***

BJ Hunnicut stretched as he walked into the Swamp.

"Hey, Hawk," he said, seeing his best friend and tent mate Hawkeye Pierce sitting hunched over on his bed, drinking a martini.

"Rough shift?" The black haired doctor glanced up at him before his eyes dropped back down to his other hand. BJ looked at the object his friend was fingering and saw that it was a pure white fishing fly.

"Not bad," BJ responded still looking at the fly his friend was focused on. "Any good fishing spots around here?"

"I dunno," Hawkeye shrugged, sipping his martini. "Why?"

"Well, you have a fishing fly and I thought you knew of some good spots around here. Maybe we could go out one day."

"It's not mine," Hawkeye shook his head and sighed as he looked up at BJ. "You know, Henry was a pretty good fisher. This used to be his."

BJ nodded as silence befell them. The blond doctor knew that his friend, Radar, Klinger, Father Mulcahy, even Majors Burns and Houlihan missed him, but Hawkeye and Radar the most.

After having been here almost three months, BJ wished he could have met the other Colonel. Almost everyone around here who knew Colonel Blake spoke fondly of him and BJ knew he shouldn't feel jealous of the personnel here, but that's what he felt. He wanted to have gotten to know him.

"Did Colonel Potter find it or Radar?" BJ asked.

"I did," Hawkeye motioned into his footlocker. "It was inside, right on top. I didn't notice it there before."

"Can I see it?" BJ held his hand out for it.

"Sure," Hawkeye passed it over and tilted his head to the side a bit as he watched BJ study it. He knew that the younger doctor had wanted to meet Henry after hearing about him and Hawkeye wished he could have, too. Suddenly, he had an idea.

"You know," Hawkeye began, "Henry would always come in sometimes. Did I tell you about the time Henry didn't let someone go home and almost died because of it?"

"No," BJ, still holding the fly, shook his head and poured a martini for himself, settling down on his own cot. "What happened?"

Hawkeye spent the next hour recounting how Cowboy had tried to do Henry in and the 'Dear John' letter from Reno that saved Henry from a chopper incident.

BJ shook his head at the end of the story. "Poor Henry," he said. "It must have been terrible for him."

"He got over it eventually," Hawkeye shrugged, before grinning. "There was this other time that Radar and Henry ended up stuck in the Shower tent during a sniper attack."

BJ really enjoyed that one, especially when Hawkeye and Trapper dressed Frank up as MacArthur. "I would have loved to have seen that," he laughed.

They spent the rest of the day with BJ listening and laughing to Hawkeye's interesting stories about the antics of the camp before he arrived.

Frank came in to tell Hawkeye that it was his shift before going to bed. BJ, for one, was sorry to see an end to the fun and wonderful stories that his best friend shared with him.

"Well," Hawkeye consoled. "There's plenty more where that came from. I'll tell you some more stories later, okay?"

"Yeah, alright," BJ nodded, getting ready for bed. "Wake me for my shift, yeah?"

"You bet," he nodded.

Hawkeye left for Post-Op and BJ managed to fall asleep soon after.

***

Around 3:00 in the morning, BJ heard moving around. Turning around, he opened his eyes to see someone sitting in the barber like chair near Hawkeye's cot.

BJ wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a fishing fly covered floppy hat on the stranger's head. Not only that, but the stranger was also wearing a navy blue sweater with an orange 'I' in the center and two horizontal lines on the left forearm.

"Hey, there," he grinned warmly at him. "Thanks for being a good friend to Hawkeye and Radar."

"Welcome," he said sleepily.

The other man lifted his martini in a toast. "I'll be here for another few minutes. Sleep well, BJ."

BJ nodded and rolled back over.

"Good night, Henry," he murmured, falling back into a deep sleep.

BJ had a small smile on his face for the rest of the night.

He was in a good mood for the next two weeks, but no one could figure out why.

***

AN: Hoped it was alright and not too scary.

This is a one-shot for the episode 'As Time Goes By'. Set in the fourth/ fifth season.

Hyper

January 7, 2009


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